Man who stabbed grandmother to death on Christmas Day ordered into psychiatric care

A man who stabbed his grandmother to death in a frenzied attack on Christmas
Day has been ordered by a judge to be placed in psychiatric care.

5:42PM GMT 21 Nov 2008

Maxwell Twyman, 25, was charged with murdering 62-year-old Valerie Twyman at her home in Conyngham Close, Ramsgate, Kent.

He later pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The court heard how Twyman knifed his grandmother, with whom he lived, as she lay in bed on December 25 last year.

Fifteen separate stab wounds were found on her head and upper body. Some of the wounds had been inflicted in rapid sequence and others inflicted with severe force.

Shortly afterwards he went round to a relative's house in Ramsgate to tell family members what he had done.

They returned to Conyngham Close and found her body in the bedroom.

Twyman confessed to the killing and was taken into custody by police.

An analysis by two psychiatrists concluded Twyman was suffering from a psychotic illness, most probably paranoid schizophrenia or a persistent delusional disorder.

Judge Michael Lawson QC gave Twyman a hospital order in line with doctors' recommendations and attached to it a restriction order safeguarding against premature future discharge while under supervision.

Speaking at the Maidstone Crown Court hearing, he said: "Violent death always causes distress. When it is the death of a beloved grandmother caused by one of her grandsons it is difficult to imagine the extent of the sadness, anger and bewilderment of the family.

"The court extends its sympathy as far as it can, especially as the anniversary approaches."

Prosecutor Alan Kent told the court that Twyman moved in with his grandmother in February last year following his parents' divorce.

His father Calvin tried to call his own mother on Christmas Day but the call went to an answering machine.

He later visited the property, found the curtains still drawn and thought his mother was still in bed.

Twyman meanwhile went round to the home of his aunt and uncle, Michelle and David Lloyd, where he appeared happy and relaxed, before bluntly telling them: "I've killed my grandmother."

He added: "Don't make a big thing of it."

He told them: "She's always been a burden, that's why I'm depressed."

When relatives discovered Mrs Twyman's body in the house, Twyman ran off and he was later found with another knife in his waistband underneath his top.

In interview, Twyman said he had taken a knife upstairs for protection some time before the killing and had a "conscience about it".

The court heard Twyman had smoked skunk cannabis since the age of 14, which altered his mood and made him depressed.

Oliver Saxby, mitigating, said the killing had been committed by "a very sick man".

He said: "He is, and has been for some time, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia."